Los Angeles history

Requiem

September 16, 2007 | 6:19
am

Sept. 16, 1957Los Angeles

Franklyn West Storer, 50, woke up on a Saturday morning to discover
that his beloved 16-year-old daughter, Mary Alice, had taken a fatal
overdose of sleeping pills. In despair, he also took a fatal overdose.

Mary
had lived with her father since her parents' divorce and in her brief
life, developed a love of classical music, so Franklyn bought records
for her, about $1,000 worth, which police found scattered around the
home. Before he killed himself, Franklyn placed a few autographed
pictures of Mary's favorite classical composer around her body, The
Times said.

His sister, Lucille Miller of National City, found the bodies in the Storer home at 5750 Camerford Ave.
after becoming alarmed by two letters from Franklyn saying that he was
afraid Mary would kill herself and that if she did, "there would not be
anything for me to live for."

Beyond that brief, tragic story,
The Times offers no explanation of what happened. Was Mary a performer?
An aspiring composer? We simply don't know. But a further search
reveals at least a few details.

California death records say that Franklyn was born in Ohio and reveal that his wife's maiden name was Bettencourt.

Franklyn took out a legal notice in The Times on Nov. 14, 1940, saying
that he would only be responsible for his own debts and the vital
records for March 13, 1942, list a divorce action by Franklyn W. Storer
vs. Victoria B. Storer.

According to the 1942 Los Angeles city
directory, Franklin W. Storer was an assistant electrical tester at the
Department of Water and Power and was living at 5722 Waring Ave.,
precisely one block from the death scene. Eliza C. McElwain, widow of
J.W. McElwain, was also living at that address. Because it was during
World War II, she could have been a landlady.

The 1956 street directory only lists Franklyn as living at 5750 Camerford.

The
Social Security Death Index has nothing on Franklyn, but lists a
Victoria B. Storer, born Aug. 30, 1913, died Jan. 14, 2002, in Turlock,
Calif.

Unfortunately, none of these fragmentary details explain the tragedy. We can only speculate.